UK publishes new Spectrum Strategy, with integrated DSA

The UK Government (Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has just published its keenly awaited spectrum strategy. It emphasises the great economic potential attached to spectrum and the importance of encouraging innovation. Spectrum already contributes over £50 billion annually to the UK economy, with £10 billion (20%) from broadcasting applications and 60% from mobile communication services.

To create the room for wireless growth and innovation, the strategy underlines the importance of all users making more efficient use of the entitlements they have and applying dynamic spectrum access technology to harvest unused capacity. A separate paper provides an update on the Government's release programme for spectrum currently assigned to public sector users.

The key demands for spectrum are identified as mobile broadband and machine to machine communications (underpinning the Internet of Things (IoT)). IoT will be supported by new Government funding (recently announced by Prime Minister David Cameron at the International CeBIT fair in Germany).

The paper states that the Government will take social and other benefits into account as well as economic value, when framing its policy. This could support public sector communications and PMSE (wireless microphones etc.) users which enjoy greater political leverage than might be suggested by looking at the direct economic results from their activities. In the case of evaluating social benefits, it would look at the costs that would be incurred by users if the spectrum access they currently enjoy were to be withdrawn - e.g. to create space for new applications. It speaks of applying Wellbeing Valuation (WV) to take a more wholistic view of end-user impact.

The Government sees the need to keep fexibility so that valuable new applications will be able find spectrum when they need it - unhindered by previous allocation decisions.

Rather than providing a detailed policy description, this document lays out a philosophy and signposts areas where work is needed e.g. in developing robust valuation approaches that allow policy decisions to be well grounded.

 

 



IEEE 802.11af publication is a landmark for Wi-Fi

The publication of the IEEE 802.11af wireless networking standard, just announced from Singapore, is a landmark in the development of Wi-Fi and Internet connection via mobile devices. Sometimes referred to as Super Wi-Fi, 802.11af enables the use of the TV white spaces (subject to regulatory approval), providing useful coverage extension and gap-filling abilities. 802.11af has wide ranging application from domestic networks in urban areas to wide area access in less densely populated areas (as we have seen in a growing number of trials in Africa and elsewhere).

Following the release last year of the first 802.11 ac products (which enable gigabit connection speeds), the main application for 802.11af is likely to be as a natural evolution of Wi-Fi, complementing the capacity available in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. As Wi-Fi's use grows, industry and policy makers are looking at how to meet capacity demand in future and thus the completion of 802.11af will be welcome news. The next key step is the development of access points and end-user devices, which will need silicon to gain the full potential economies of scale.

Given 802.11af's wide area potential, it is likely that it will also be considered for machine to machine applications (e.g. such as CCTV, which is a broadband application), but it will face competition from other emerging standards such as Weightless, which can also use the white spaces and has been crafted with the diverse needs of M2M in mind.

More details on the 802.11af publication may be found here.

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